Civil Air Patrol orders 21 new Cessna aircraft for 2027 delivery

Civil Air Patrol (CAP) has ordered 21 new Cessna piston aircraft from Textron Aviation. Textron announced the order on 21 October 2026. Deliveries are expected to be completed in 2027. The aircraft will support search and rescue, disaster response, training and youth programs across the United States.

The order

• 11 Cessna Skylane 182
• 7 Cessna Skyhawk 172
• 2 Cessna Turbo Skylane T182T
• 1 Cessna Turbo Stationair HD 206

This follows an order for 15 Cessna aircraft that CAP placed in December 2025.

Who flies them

CAP is a nonprofit and the official auxiliary of the US Air Force. Textron says it is the largest Cessna operator in the world, with 543 single-engine aircraft. It has about 72,000 members, including 35,000 adults and 37,000 young cadets, at 1,424 locations.

The group keeps its aircraft busy. Since October 2024, CAP members have flown nearly 200,000 hours and 860 search and rescue missions. CAP credits those missions with saving 104 lives. Since it began counting in 1967, it has been credited with saving nearly 5,000 lives. For 2025, it estimates about $334 million in value from $73.5 million of federal funding.

Bob Gibbs, who leads defense and special mission sales at Textron Aviation, said CAP "has a remarkable ability to turn flight hours into real impact."

Aircraft sales and dealers

See Cessna (Textron Aviation) on The Flying Engineer. Textron Aviation is exhibiting at NBAA-BACE 2026 in Las Vegas this week. To compare brokers and sellers of new and used aircraft, see our aircraft sales companies.

Source: Textron Aviation press release, 21 October 2026